The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has announced the start of work aimed at having a Canary Islands-Africa Strategy, whose fundamental objective is to contribute to the social and economic growth of the two territories, speaking and listening from both shores.
Through this initiative, the archipelago seeks to position itself as a platform for the European Union and Spain with the neighboring continent, promoting institutional, economic, service and cooperation alliances, and also generating a space for sustainable economic growth that provides joint solutions to shared challenges.
In this sense, the president stressed the interest of the autonomous community in relying on a strategy towards Africa not only because of the geographical proximity and neighborhood relations, but also because of the bridges of understanding and collaboration that the archipelago has always maintained with the countries of the African environment.
This is the first time that the Canary Islands has designed a plan to identify lines of action that attract the interest of both parties, a process that will be in permanent adaptation to adjust to a future in permanent construction.
In this sense, the Government is aware that developing a strategy towards Africa, which identifies lines of action to achieve certain results, is not a simple task and requires addressing them with a capacity for continuous adjustment and adaptation. Its priority, added the president in Casa África, has been to understand and know the concerns of the African countries that the Government of the Canary Islands has visited and its intention is to "give a comprehensive response to everything we have learned and heard".
In this way, working from the two territories, Fernando Clavijo insisted, it will be possible to respond jointly to challenges of interest to both the Canary Islands and the African countries in the closest environment, promoting opportunities that generate benefit for both parties.
The archipelago wants to take advantage of its strategic geographical position to consolidate itself as a bridge between Africa and Europe and strengthen cooperation that allows generating new economic and social opportunities, said the Canarian president at the inauguration of the forum organized by Prensa
To advance in this initiative, a governance body will be launched, the Canary Islands-Africa Strategy Council, which will be sponsored by the Presidency of the Government and whose coordination will depend directly on the General Directorate of Relations with Africa.
Likewise, Fernando Clavijo understands that the Canary Islands must assume the commitment to create a space of economic prosperity, sustainability and peace, endorsed also by the capacities that it can transfer to the countries of our environment, in addition to offering our competitive advantages, from legal security to infrastructure.
Priority areas and countries
The Government of the Canary Islands wants to establish these strategic lines of action by listening, sitting down to talk with these countries and working together so that lines of action can be established to improve the economic and social conditions in those countries and can also contribute to the growth of Canarian companies.
Thus, among the priority objectives of the Canary Islands-Africa Strategy is to strengthen territorial and neighborhood cooperation and, with the support of the European Union, increase cooperation in innovation, competitiveness, sustainable development, energy efficiency, and green, blue and circular economy.
Likewise, in this mutual collaboration, this line of action represents an opportunity to diversify the Canarian economy and promote the internationalization of Canarian companies in Africa, while promoting new opportunities that generate mutual benefit in sectors such as tourism, technology, fishing, renewables, etc.
With regard to geographical priorities, the Canary Islands has always been clear about its geographical area of influence and in this sense, connectivity will always be a challenge. In any case, he announced the Government's interest in the relationship with Morocco having a strategic consideration. In addition, Mauritania, Senegal, Cape Verde, Gambia, on the one hand, and Ghana, Ivory Coast and Guinea Bissau are and will continue to be preferred countries in our cooperation with Africa.
